Friday, October 21, 2011

Metallurgical Microscope Darkfield vs. Brightfield

Metallurgical microscopes provide high magnification with reflected light - in particular, they allow you to view objects that will not allow light to pass through them, with higher magnification and optical quality than a stereo microscope would provide.

When viewing metals with a metallurgical microscope, darkfield often makes it easier to view small craters and depth within substances. Because of the reflective nature of metals, darkfield takes the light and pushes it up around the sides of the object, often removing the glare from the image, without sacrificing so much light as to lose sight of the details within the image.

Stainless steel captured at 200x magnification using darkfield.

Steel captured at 500x magnification using brightfield.

Steel captured at 500x magnification using darkfield.

Steel captured at 500x magnification using brightfield.

Steel captured at 500x magnification using darkfield.

From the images above it is easier to see how darkfield microscopy can often highlight the depth of ridges and craters within metals. If you have any questions about metallurgical microscopes or darkfield microscopy please feel free to email us.